1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a simulation apparatus, a simulation method therefor, and a program for implementing the simulation method, and more particularly to a simulation apparatus that simulates the behavior of a flexible medium conveyed in a conveying path, a simulation method therefor, and a program for implementing the simulation method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In designing a conveying path in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a laser printer, study of functions of the image forming apparatus to be designed, required for various conditions before the image forming apparatus is actually manufactured can reduce the man-hours required for manufacturing and testing prototypes, and can reduce the time and cost of the development at the same time. For these purposes, generally, studies are made to achieve optimal design of the conveying path by analyzing the behavior of a sheet conveyed in the conveying path in the image forming apparatus by means of computer simulation.
As a conventional technique used to simulate the behavior of a sheet conveyed in the conveying path, there has been proposed a design support system which defines a flexible medium (sheet) as finite elements using the finite element method to thereby evaluate the conveyance resistance (guide resistance) and contact angle between the flexible medium and guides in the conveying path (refer to Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications (Kokai) Nos. H11-195052 and H11-116133, for example).
However, the above conventional simulation apparatus has the following problem. Namely, to exactly evaluate the behavior of a sheet conveyed in the conveying path and the guide resistance, it is necessary to take into consideration curling of the flexible medium (sheet). However, in the prior art, for the flexible medium which is expressed as a collection of its mass and spring, the angles between the respective mass points are selected to set the curling. Although the sheet behavior and the guide resistance can be evaluated by expressing the curling shape of the sheet, it requires a large amount of man-hours to set the curling.